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Opinion: Guest Opinions

Andy Schultheiss: Time for Boulder and Xcel to talk this out

By Andy Schultheiss

Posted:
03/26/2016 08:40:40 PM MDT

An Xcel Energy contractor works on a power pole in Boulder last year. It is time for mediation to see if Xcel and city officials can find common ground to avoid years of wrangling over the city's municpalization proposal, the author writes. (David R. Jennings / Staff Photographer)

The history of Boulder's municipalization project is, needless to say, complicated. We heard recently that costs have exceeded the funds the 2011 voter-supported tax provides ("Boulder's Spending on Municipal Utility Tops $10million," Daily Camera, March 5), and the city has chosen to dip into its general and contingency funds to cover the shortfall. It could (and likely will) be years of multi-layered regulatory and litigation proceedings before we're done, and since the tax expires next year the city cannot responsibly budget without knowing whether it will be renewed. Worse yet, the city could still lose any of these proceedings and have nothing to show for its investment.

At the same time, however, the muni project has accomplished much of what voters set out to do in 2011. Xcel frankly admits that Boulder's ambitions have made them "a better company," and Xcel's recently announced plans to expand its renewable energy offerings are evidence of that. Towns and cities across the country have followed suit and pushed their own utilities to do more on renewables. Indeed, Boulder has been part of an important, grassroots solution to climate change.

But there still is no clear answer to the central questions: whether the city can create its own utility at a reasonable cost, and what a realistic timeline would be to launch it.

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This brings us to a fork in the road. The city anticipates getting a final decision from the Public Utilities Commission early in 2017, the first of the legal and regulatory hurdles that the city must overcome to launch its utility (the city cannot even begin the condemnation court process until the PUC decision is made). Whichever side loses any of these proceedings is likely to appeal, pushing the timeline out even further. No doubt we have miles to go before we sleep.

But given where we are now, there is another way forward: mediation. When voters approved the municipalization plan they were promised there would be multiple "off-ramps" when the city could reach a new deal with Xcel if the obstacles proved too significant. Unfortunately, there has been no public consideration of these off-ramps. And mediation is a responsible way to consider such a possible exit.

Open Boulder, an organization devoted to transparency and practical government, has a simple proposition: The city and Xcel should go to the bargaining table immediately, with a neutral mediator, and hash out an agreement that locks in a return on Boulder's substantial investment, one that allows the city to be a leader on the municipal response to climate change. If the process works, then Boulder wins. And if negotiations fail, both parties should disclose, publicly, their best offers, so that voters have a sense of where the chips fell.

Boulder voters have been patient, partly because of a lack of information about the details of the city's strategy, and partly because Boulder has succeeded in pushing Xcel into a more carbon-sensitive mode of operation. Our sense is that we have a short window, before the city refiles with the PUC this summer, when both Boulder and Xcel are uncertain of the outcome. Thus, the prudent course for both is to avoid the uncertainty and reach a settlement.

Open Boulder is concerned that we not lose sight of the prize here. To us, the goal has always been to do Boulder's part — and then some — to transform American energy by reducing carbon emissions and moving to cleaner energy, and the sooner the better. Some of that has indeed been accomplished by virtue of the muni project. The rest is bigger than our city alone.

Open Boulder's board and staff, not unlike the rest of Boulder, have been divided on the many complex questions surrounding municipalization. Some were active early supporters of the project, while others were skeptical from the outset. But we, again like many Boulder citizens, are deeply concerned about the prospect of several more years of legal wrangling and attendant risks (perhaps) to bring municipalization to fruition. In the past several weeks we have talked to both parties to discuss where things stand. Our conclusion is that we should try to reap tangible benefits from the very sizable investment Boulder taxpayers have made in this project now, before walking farther down this uncertain road.

Now is the time to reach an agreement that will further our common goals. And we say to both Xcel and City Council, let's see if we can produce a win for the citizens of Boulder.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story